State of Siege
by Jet556
Summary: Wilusa is under siege by the Labinnac hordes and this siege will not be finished in a matter of days. Armed with crossbows and with cannons from Mumm-Ra on the way, the Labinnac dream of doing all kind of evil things to the Wilusans. They care nothing for honour or if they turn battle into butchery. All that they look forward too is the kind of atrocities they live to carry out.
1. Aggressors

**Welcome everyone. A new story and this one set during the Siege of Wilusa as you might have guessed from the title. Enjoy and review.**

 **Aggressors**

Bestrewed, befouled, crumbling, built on the remains of an older Wilusa with bits of roof protruding out of the earth and pieces of ancient bronzes lying around. This was the Labinnac camp.

Corruption, lechery, contagion, barbarity, turpitude these were just a few of the characteristics of the Labinnac besides cannibalism. The clan of the High Warlord, the Labinnac equivalent of the Chieftain of Evabon and King of Thundera, who were descended from their arch creator the Devilry Lord were more of what the Labinnac considered to be the epitomes of morality and benevolence whatever that might have been otherwise they were just as much living embodiments of lechery, contagion and turpitude. That incest born clan that inbred to keep mortal from adulterating the angelic ancestry looked different from the lesser Labinnac. In fact, they bore a strange resemblance to Mumm-Ra. The current High Warlord, Tethadam, was dead and mummified with his husk being kept in the Fane of the Devilry Lord. The mummification had only enhanced the resemblance to Mumm-Ra. Succession was rather confusing as it continuously alternated from father to son, from brother to brother, from nephew to uncle, from father-in-law to son-in-law and then after that it started back with from father to son. If something was missing from the equation it was usually skipped. Tethadam had succeeded his brother Theoadam so his own successor would be his uncle Ptah.

The Labinnac could in no way be called civilized. Any savage could wear the civilized mask just as any civilized person could wear the savage mask. The state of Labinnac settlements are something best left for another story, the story of the ThunderCats' visit to Karthage, the Labinnac capital.

"When morning comes we'll run straight into them!" exclaimed a Labinnac playing dice by himself. "The Devilry Lord himself has returned all of the world shall be bent to our will. No one will ever drive us into the—"

"Be silent you spear-fingered old fool!" A half-asleep Labinnac resting his head on a rock sat up. "It's bad enough I'm missing the coronation of the High Warlord but you prattling on while I'm trying to sleep will drive me into my fifth rage this night!"

"Save it, both of you!" A heavily scarred Labinnac jumped from out of a tent brandishing a flail. "If I hear any more from either of you I will remove your noses, ears and lips and force feed them to you!"

The other two Labinnac both flinched in horror. They may have been cannibalistic but to eat their own flesh was an unspeakable evil in their eyes. The threat had served its purpose and they both saved their words to each other for another time.


	2. A Grisly Death

**Welcome back everyone. Kerdig first appeared in the story "Wilusa." Enjoy and review.**

 **A Grisly Death**

From a crossbow an arrow flew and hit the Wilusan known as Kerdig in the right eye. A scream came from Kerdig's throat as he clutched the arrow while four Labinnac brutally dismembered him. This was what the Labinnac lived for this was what they enjoyed! They did not care about conquest or stealing. It was killing that they lived for, causing destruction. The fear of them was not out of some evil prejudice, it was out of cold hard facts.

The three Labinnac of the night before: Spear-Finger, White-Eyes and Raging-Volcano were all there with hope that the participation in Kerdig's dismemberment would bring them the reward of a proper name. Amongst the Labinnac only those of High Warlord's family could have proper names and only they could give proper names. These three were young warriors hoping to have the new High Warlord learn of them and grant them proper names. The three could not stand each other and among the Labinnac there were no rivals. There was just enemies and that was what they were to each other but for the sake of the siege they would tolerate each other until they no longer could.

An Evabon from the wall, without a bow, tried to throw an arrow at the fourth Labinnac, the one who had shot Kerdig. Unfortunately, he missed… And hit Raging-Volcano in the left shoulder near the neck.

In shock from this, both sides paused. One without a bow had thrown an arrow and it had hit a target.

With wide eyes Raging-Volcano looked upward upon he who had struck him. It had been a boy of eight with grey skin and blue eyes. Wilusa was so afraid of them that they had children at the walls?

Placing his right hand around the arrow, Raging-Volcano broke it. The head was still embedded in his shoulder but it would have to be removed later in solitude. If it were done here all of his fellow Labinnac may leap upon him at the sight of his blood.

The fighting then resumed as if such a thing had not happened.

"I shall flay alive and hang that boy for this." Thought Raging-Volcano. "That is a promise."

However, such promises cannot be kept. The removal of the arrow was what caused a horrible realization of what was coming to Raging-Volcano. Something that would prevent him from ever getting a proper name!


	3. Labinnac's Blood

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **Labinnac's Blood**

Away from the encampment of his fellow Labinnac, Raging-Volcano sat at a river as he pulled the arrowhead that was embedded in his shoulder out. His blue blood upon the head, the Labinnac had very little idea of what would come. By removing the arrowhead, Raging-Volcano had carelessly mangled his own left arm in the process. This wound would swiftly become gangrenous. The day would close as he ended his earthly life. His comrades would feast upon his flesh but they would leave his heart and mummify it. Mummification may have been reserved for the family of the High Warlord but Raging-Volcano was highly respected and by highly respect that means highly feared due to his temperament. He'd never get to flay alive and hang the boy that had thrown that arrow.

That boy's name was Balor. He had come to the wall to deliver a quiver full of arrows that the father of his family had forgotten. An arrow from a crossbow belt had missed him so Balor threw it back over the wall, hoping it would get whoever shot it. It didn't and the Labinnac certainly would not have viewed it that way since they believed the intended target was someone nearer to Raging-Volcano when it was in fact someone farther from the wall.

So the lion would be slain by the ant! And why not? A rat kills a crocodile, a dhole a tiger, why shouldn't an ant kill a lion?

As for Balor for his arrival to the wall he was given a scolding. Gard himself gave the scolding. In the hall that the Gardites called their home in Wilusa, Gard stood before Balor who merely sat on his knees before the Father of the Gardites.

"Of all the foolhardy acts I have seen in my millennia of life that was one of the most foolhardy!" said Gard. "When I told you to stay in our hall, I expected you to stay and maybe get one of your older cousins to deliver the quiver I had forgotten."

"At least I delivered the quiver, didn't I?" asked Balor.

"Only to nearly be killed in the process." Replied Gard. "You are to stay away from the wall until this siege is over. I understand that during this siege, Piyamaradu is too distracted to teach you with his constant meetings but despite your lessons being postponed that does not mean you can just be anywhere in the city. Therefore, I ask that you stay far from the wall."

"Am I dismissed?" asked Balor.

"I suppose." Replied Gard. "Go, but remember the curfew I have given you and the rest of the young Gardites."


	4. Childhood During Siege

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **Childhood during Siege**

From the hall Balor walked. Each hero's family had a hall in Wilusa and so it was the Hall of the Gardites that Balor walked from.

The sun was setting and so as it set so ended a day of the Siege of Wilusa. For the children, it was the setting of another day filled with wondering when would they play outside of Wilusa's walls again. For Balor it was the setting of another day of wondering when his lessons with Piyamaradu would resume.

As Balor walked from the hall, he saw some of his friends playing with a ball: Chinggis, Kastha and Ekoto. Not far away, Alaksandu was watching with eyes that one could not interpret.

"Hello, friends." Said Balor. "You seem half-interested in the game."

Indeed they were. It seemed as if already the siege was bringing their spirits down, not being able to go out into the spaces they were trapped in the half-ruined city but even then they did not know the city's deepest secrets for Wilusa had been sacked and destroyed many times and had always been rebuilt upon ruins so there was parts of Wilusa that even those who had been born in Wilusa knew nothing of.

"Half-interested?" asked Ekoto. "You put it too lightly. Playing ball isn't what it used to be. There is a siege going on and I can't help but hope this ball was a boulder I could throw down to decrease the Labinnac by one!"

"My throwing of an arrow was meant only with scolding from Gard." Commented Balor. "I have a feeling my mentor your father would do the same thing."

"Still…" said Ekoto. "It would do something."

"I had a dream of them being trampled by mounted warriors last night." Said Chinggis. "What a dream it was! If not for my chores I would have told you of it earlier!"

"Everyone knows how the Labinnac fear mounted warriors." Commented Kashta. "If only we had enough to send them running!"

"It seemed like there was three of them for everyone of us." Added Balor. It was then at that point that Balor started to wish for a change of subject. "Where is Brigid?"

"Still at the Hall of the Zuvowangidae I think." Replied Ekoto. "I believe she was trying to sneak away from her own chores."


	5. Chores

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **Chores**

Bring this, cook that, make, make, make, make, make. Brigid had been fed up with chores helping in the kitchen of the Zuvowangidae's hall. She wanted something else to do but chores! She wanted lessons of some sort like Balor with Piyamaradu! Still, her family's father would hear nothing of her sneaking away from chores during a siege.

"Brigid, I worry about your safety." Said Zuvowang, sitting next to Brigid. "Ever since you and Henti were carried away I cannot bare to think of what could happen to you. You are a child, Henti is gravid and I'm helping in the defense of Wilusa. I worry about what would happen if the Labinnac were to break in from another part of the city!"

"I know I'm just bored of chores. I want to do something besides helping Eukratez in the kitchen. I keep fearing that he might hurt me if he should trip and fall on top of me, he's so big and his singing is so terrible I fear I may go deaf. It's as dangerous for me in that kitchen as it is for you defending Wilusa!"

Zuvowang went silent and placed a hand on his bearded chin. True Eukratez was rather big and his singing was rather… appealing to the deaf.

"I… shall think about giving you different chores that do not require helping Eukratez… Of course, I know not what chores you will have but for now you are not to leave the hall."

"What if I want to go pick flowers during the lull in the fighting?" asked Brigid.

"You are to stay in the hall until the Labinnac have gone." Replied Zuvowang.

"But—"

"Stay."

Brigid stood up from the stairs she was sitting on and walked up to her room. It had just a bed and her doll Epona in it. Would Epona be her only company for a while?

As it would turn out, she would not. Very soon Balor came visiting and thus they talked.

"I can't stay in this hall until the Labinnac leave." Groaned Brigid. "What if they are still there ten years from now?"

"Boy, I hope not." Said Balor. "The thought of the same Labinnac being out there ten years from now is unappealing."


	6. Cannons

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **Cannons**

Keep them primitive. That was Mumm-Ra's intention. He would some ambitious Labinnac of the High Warlord's family seeking to overthrow him just as he would do to someone he claimed descent from. Thus Mumm-Ra sent the Labinnac at Wilusa cannons that required powder and balls. That would keep the Labinnac primitive,

Thus the Labinnac stared in awe at these things. They had never seen anything like them, they were like some sort of dragons that the Devilry Lord had sent them and thus the Labinnac would refer to the cannons as dragons just as they referred to Mumm-Ra as the Devilry Lord.

Spear-Finger laughed gleefully as he danced around the cannons.

"Butchery!" he shouted. "Wilusa will be broken in a few hours, then we shall engage in our butchery! Butchery! Butchery! Butchery!" Spear-Finger's enthusiasm had ended up getting the rest of the Labinnac chanting "Butchery!" like zealots.

The chanting from the Labinnac did not go unheard in Wilusa. All those at the north wall or nearby flocked to see what was going on.

Gard, Zuvowang and Dalv all stood at the wall staring at the sight before them.

"What are those things?" asked Gard. An Evabon might have had eyesight like binoculars but given that fact that Gard was half-blind it was more like looking through a telescope for him. "They look like cannulas."

"Cannulas?" asked Zuvowang.

"Tubes." Replied Gard.

"Oh…" Zuvowang looked at some barrels near the cannons. "What do you suppose is in those?"

"It seems to be black powder." Commented Dalv as he watched a Labinnac open them. "Black powder… Once saw something like that used by the Nomis for entertainment… I wonder." Dalv lit an arrow and took aim at the open barrel.

Upon loosing the arrow and the contact with the black powder exploded causing a few of the cannons to be destroyed, as well as some of the powder and balls.

"So they are cannons." Said Gard. "And that should mean…"


	7. Cannonballs

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **Cannonballs**

A cannonball came flying only to fly right over the wall and crash into a hall. All of the Evabon turned and looked at the hall from where they were.

"Whose is that?" asked Gard. "There are so many houses near it I can't tell whose it is!"

"Mine" replied Dalv.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Zuvowang, turning back to taunt the Labinnac. "They get cannons and they don't even know how to aim them! Try and shoot us again, you cowardly butchers! You can blow holes into the roof of the Hall of the Dalvings for the entire siege if you want!"

"Zuvowang, the Labinnac might be cowardly butchers but they are clever." Commented Gard. "No doubt they'll soon figure the cannons out. Now get to loosing arrows!"

Amongst the Labinnac, Spear-Finger had been near the barrel that had exploded. The very sound of it had caused him to go running, not knowing what was going on. White-Eyes however had been much nearer and thus been injured by the explosion. Raging-Volcano merely watched from afar, his wound no longer bleeding but the wound would become gangrenous and he would die eventually but for now he would fight and watch what was going on.

Unfortunately, the Labinnac soon organized themselves and started firing the cannons. They began with the cannonballs soaring clear over the wall and into the city itself until they finally started firing at the wall, with some misfires happening as well as the aim being off at some points and instead hitting the ground at the base of the wall.

The walls of Wilusa were thick and the city had been built upon its own ruins. The city was strong but the cannonballs took their toll nonetheless. The walls would begin to look weakened and once they had finally crumbled then the Labinnac hordes would rush in.

"Let the dragons roar!" yelled Spear-Finger. "Their fire will bring Wilusa's walls down and we shall have our bloody victory!"

This acting leader of the Labinnac was arrogant and believed that victory would soon be theirs. This was not the case. Even with their dragons the Labinnac would have to go a bit longer to get their victory. If they emerged victorious.


	8. Wodanaz

**Welcome back everyone. I've been meaning to have Wodanaz appear again before I write his origin story, which shall also be an adaptation of the Ring of the Nibelung, so this is it. Enjoy and review.**

 **Wodanaz**

Despite having ascended to the Floating Mountain across the Rainbow Bridge Wodanaz could not simply leave Third Earth behind. The first Evabon shaman would often venture down but this time he found something most shocking when he ventured down to Wilusa.

All upon the Floating Mountain were now unable to look down to see Third Earth. They found their vision of the world below gone. This was the Ancient Spirits of Evil doing. As Procyon had often come to the aid of allies of the ThunderCats, they feared that he might come to the aid of the ThunderCats themselves and so they cast a spell on the Floating Mountain that caused all of its inhabitants to be blind to what is going on below.

So did Wodanaz come down! His mind filled with memories of the time when Wilusa, this Wilusa was but a thing that had yet to be built, Wodanaz stared in horror.

Armed with cannons the Labinnac would surely destroy Wilusa! This he could not allow!

Raising his staff to the sky, Wodanaz brought down both lightning and a blizzard on the Labinnac. While the lightning may have killed a few Labinnac, the blizzard ultimately became a rainstorm from some unseen interference.

Once more the Ancient Spirits of Evil were interfering. Any potential allies of the ThunderCats had to be stopped. It was Mumm-Ra that had to be victorious in this war, not the ThunderCats!

This only drove Wodanaz to become furious. He brought forth more lightning, not caring where it struck!

And that was his mistake.

He had brought down a lightning bolt so powerful that he had destroyed Wilusa's gate. At the sight of this, the Labinnac stopped firing the cannons and started to charge at Wilusa.

Wodanaz did not mean for that to happen! This could not happen! It would not happen!

Once more Wodanaz rose his staff to the sky and this time, once more focused, the lightning was directed at the Labinnac alone.


	9. The Day's Battle Ended

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **The Day's Battle Ended**

Building a new gate, the Wilusans finally enjoyed some peace. The Labinnac feared the night for they did have their superstitions and the Evabon had their honor code which prevented them from attacking those who held them under siege while they slept.

Sitting amongst the warriors, Gard held a horned helmet in his hand with his good eye on it like it was a target in an archery range. The horns were not on the side but on the front of the helmet and they pointed not downward but upward.

"In my youth I once owned such a helmet." Commented Gard. "I must confess that I prefer to be bare headed now. What care I if people see my bald crown? I do not wear helmets anymore."

"Nor I." added Zuvowang as he joined the group. "I don't believe I have ever worn helmets. I remember my cradle being a great shield, when I grew old enough and strong enough to carry it I took that shield as my own and it would serve as my pillow when I slept."

"Shields…" mused Dalv, himself now joining the group. "I made my first killing with the aid of a shield. The man proclaimed himself invincible—"

"What was he?" asked one of the warriors.

"That's irrelevant." Replied Dalv. "After twice throwing spears at him and failing to wound him even though they hit him, I bashed him in the nose with his own shield and then bashed him to the death with a stone. Sometimes the greatest weapons are those of the land."

Gard burst into laughter. "So much for an invulnerable warrior! If I knew the secret of what caused Jaques to die perhaps we could kill Donalbain and Orsino for good."

"Aye." Agreed Zuvowang. "But yet I wonder, where are they now."

Where were Donalbain and Orsino indeed? To Donalbain's frustration, instead of being sent to Wilusa by Mumm-Ra he had found himself sent to a different siege, albeit one that would prove to be much shorter: The Siege of the Valley of the Tombs. As for Orsino, he was being sent on a tracking expedition. His quarry? The ThunderCats themselves!

Donalbain would meet defeat while Orsino would find the ThudnerCats in Karthage. But these would not happen in the same day.


	10. Another Night

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **Another Night**

Spear-Finger played dice. Raging-Volcano tried to sleep. White-Eyes sat nearby with a flail in hand. It was just as the night before.

"When the night is over, we shall begin again!" exclaimed Spear-Finger. "The Devilry Lord has returned! All the world shall be bent to our will!"

"Again? We heard you the last night!" yelled Raging-Volcano. "We heard you the night before and the night before that! If you continue with that I'll force those dice down your greasy throat!"

"Peace, brothers, peace." Broke in White-Eyes. "We are here to fight the Evabon, not each other."

"Has that ever prevented us from fighting each other anyway?" asked Raging-Volcano. "We see blood of one of our own and we have to restrain ourselves from attacking them! Next time I see one of you bleeding I won't even restrain myself! I'll eat your heart, your eyes, your kidney, if need be I'll even eat your teeth!"

"Sacrilege!" exclaimed White-Eyes. "Only the High Warlord may eat the heart as well as the kidneys, brain, eyes and teeth!"

"The High Warlord is not here!" objected Raging-Volcano. "The coronation lasts a year and by the time he has arrived the heart, kidneys, brain and eyes will have decomposed leaving only the teeth!"

"I will hear none of this nonsense. Those are for the High Warlord to eat alone, I will not allow anyone to permit such sacrilege! The High Warlord is the day and the night! He is the suns and the moons! He is a deity like the Devilry Lord, just a lesser one."

Spear-Finger rolled his eyes and continued playing with his dice. They did not need to be reminded of what the High Warlord was. They knew what he was as well as anyone.

 **The End**


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